Getting Your Vocal Sound

[john]

 

Hey

 

Getting your vocal sound is probably the highest impact aspect of creating quality recordings that faces anyone recording modern music. Often it is the only point where someone making new music has to bring audio from the real world into their masterpiece. Everything else is generated with loops and virtual instruments. Sure you can use vocal loops, but it isn’t the same.

 

It’s one thing getting the basic voice recorded into your recording environment.

What microphone do you use?

What is your recording environment?

What vocal treatments do you use (if any) when recording?

 

It’s another to get that track to a finished standard as recorded audio that shapes the sound

What effects and processors do you use?

How do you use them?

What are you trying to achieve?

 

And how do you integrate it with the rest of the track?

Do you sit the vocal above the music, further forwards in the mix?

Do you sit the vocal within the music, further back in the mix?

 

There’s a trend that has been pushing vocals further and further back in the mix it’s been becoming increasingly like that for years.

 

So I am interested in what you guys do to get your sound? What effects chains do you use?

 

Cheers

 

John

[starise]

Well, I don't claim to have arrived . As an aside I've been tracking acoustic instruments , so I make good use of microphones.

 

It seems like it should be obvious that the more cluttered a mix is, especially if they are amped guitars, loud drums and bass, the harder it can be to carve a vocal space. Admittedly I sometimes prefer my voice to be further back in a mix because even though I want the vocal to be heard, I want the guitars over it to be apparent. That's really a mix decision. 

An acoustic guitarist who sings won't run into these kids of issues.

 

With a rock mix there is so much going on, so here are a few things I have done that help.

 

-EQ carving. Maybe pan guitars L/R to 'miss' the vocal. Putting the vocal in a slightly different space. Rock/pop mixes need to be loud and there is competition among instruments, so the carving necessary applies to all of it.

 

-Parallel compression, or running the vocal through a buss channel with a compressor.

 

-Double tracking a vocal. Not the same as copying the vocal track to have two tracks. No. Track two vocal parts singing the same thing.

 

- Use the right mic. This can be different depending on a person's voice. I have found recently that one of the matched pair of small diaphram condensers with the wind filter attached works really well for me. Small diaphram reduces boom. The wind screen generally negates the need for a pop filter if I'm careful.

 

- My present recording space, which is temporary, is just this large dining room full of stuff. It seems to work well for me because there are no reflections in there. Better to go in slightly 'dead' with respect to reflections, than going in live. I would take the first one any day because reverb is generally added in the mix.

 

- Tools. I use a Universal Audio interface that has a 476 compressor built into the circuitry, so it's pretty sweet for recording vocals and guitars.

 

"My sound" is varied with the material I'm recording, so for me it changes.

 

[john]

11 hours ago, starise said:

Well, I don't claim to have arrived . As an aside I've been tracking acoustic instruments , so I make good use of microphones.

 

It seems like it should be obvious that the more cluttered a mix is, especially if they are amped guitars, loud drums and bass, the harder it can be to carve a vocal space. Admittedly I sometimes prefer my voice to be further back in a mix because even though I want the vocal to be heard, I want the guitars over it to be apparent. That's really a mix decision. 

An acoustic guitarist who sings won't run into these kids of issues.

 

With a rock mix there is so much going on, so here are a few things I have done that help.

 

-EQ carving. Maybe pan guitars L/R to 'miss' the vocal. Putting the vocal in a slightly different space. Rock/pop mixes need to be loud and there is competition among instruments, so the carving necessary applies to all of it.

 

-Parallel compression, or running the vocal through a buss channel with a compressor.

 

-Double tracking a vocal. Not the same as copying the vocal track to have two tracks. No. Track two vocal parts singing the same thing.

 

- Use the right mic. This can be different depending on a person's voice. I have found recently that one of the matched pair of small diaphram condensers with the wind filter attached works really well for me. Small diaphram reduces boom. The wind screen generally negates the need for a pop filter if I'm careful.

 

- My present recording space, which is temporary, is just this large dining room full of stuff. It seems to work well for me because there are no reflections in there. Better to go in slightly 'dead' with respect to reflections, than going in live. I would take the first one any day because reverb is generally added in the mix.

 

- Tools. I use a Universal Audio interface that has a 476 compressor built into the circuitry, so it's pretty sweet for recording vocals and guitars.

 

"My sound" is varied with the material I'm recording, so for me it changes.

 

 

Nice to see you back on the boards Tim!

 

You mention some good subjects in your answer. EQ carving is often overlooked, and double tracking is often a lazy copy these days.

 

Out of interest, you get some brilliant blends on double track vocals when you pan vocal 1 to the center, make two copies of vocal 2, pan hard right and left, nudge the two vox back to create a slap back delay, in time to the music, perhaps a 1/64th and a 32nd, and apply a high pass on them somewhere between 400-800Hz (also worth experimenting up to 2k). It thickens but keeps it lively without cluttering the usually busy mid channel.